A reel for paying out elongate elements for interior cabling of buildings

ABSTRACT

A reel for paying out elongate elements for interior cabling of buildings.  
     According to the invention, said reel ( 1 ) comprises:  
     a container ( 10 ) of generally toroidal shape, presenting an outer wall ( 11 ) that is cylindrical about axis A, an inner wall ( 12 ) that is also cylindrical, and coaxial with the outer wall, and a substantially plane bottom ( 13 ) interconnecting the outer and inner walls ( 11, 12 ) and extending perpendicularly to the axis A, the outer wall ( 11 ) being provided with a side opening ( 14 ) through which said elongate elements pass; and  
     a spool ( 20 ) designed to receive the elongate elements and to be inserted in the container ( 10 ), said spool comprising a cylindrical core ( 21 ) capable of interfitting about said inner wall ( 12 ), and bordered by an annular flange ( 22 ) capable of bearing against the bottom ( 13 ) of said container.  
     Application to interior cabling of buildings.

[0001] The present invention relates to a reel for paying out elongate elements for interior cabling of buildings.

[0002] A particularly advantageous application of the invention is in the field of installing, inside buildings, precabling conduits or groups of conduits, such as flat strips.

[0003] Nowadays, a building is precabled with conduits by unreeling them from a drum placed on a pay-out stand essentially constituted by a horizontal shaft about which the drum can turn freely under the action of the pulling force exerted on the wound elongate element, e.g. a conduit.

[0004] However, the use of drums presents a certain number of drawbacks. As a result of their large size, drums are generally installed outside buildings, and even if it is sometimes possible to put them in the corridors, they remain difficult to handle. In addition, unreeling from drums is noisy.

[0005] Furthermore, the bulk and the remoteness of the drum does not allow lengths of elongate elements to be unreeled directly into the cable ducts of buildings. It is necessary firstly to cut the conduit to length on the floor, thereby posing safety problems for the conduits since people can tread on them and damage them, and secondly to place them in cabling infrastructures.

[0006] Thus, the technical problem to be resolved by the present invention is to propose a reel for paying out elongate elements for interior cabling of buildings, which reel enables said elongate elements to be handled more easily and effectively than do the drums that have been used up until now.

[0007] According to the present invention, the solution to the technical problem posed consists in that said reel comprises:

[0008] a container of generally toroidal shape, presenting an outer wall that is cylindrical about axis A, an inner wall that is also cylindrical, and coaxial with the outer wall, and a substantially plane bottom interconnecting the outer and inner walls and extending perpendicularly to the axis A, the outer wall being provided with a side opening through which said elongate elements pass; and

[0009] a spool designed to receive the elongate elements and to be inserted in the container, said spool comprising a cylindrical core capable of interfitting about said inner wall, and bordered by an annular flange capable of bearing against the bottom of said container.

[0010] Thus, the reel of the invention enables the conduits wound in coils around the core of the spool to be unreeled horizontally, the reel being placed on the floor, with its axis A in a vertical position. It thus requires no special unwinding equipment and can take up less floor space, thereby enabling it to be used inside buildings, closer to cable ducts. Consequently, it is not necessary to cut predetermined lengths of cabling. In contrast, it suffices to lead the elongate elements directly from the reel of the invention into the cabling infrastructures, resulting in a significant saving in the installation time. This results in improved safety for the conduits, or strips of conduits, since it is no longer necessary to put them on the floor in order to cut them to length. It should also be noted that if the cable ducts are very high, for example, it is possible to install said reels on stands rather than cut conduits to length, this being made possible by the small size and light weight of the reel of the invention.

[0011] In the invention, in order to obtain easy unreeling under a weak pulling force, the bottom of the container includes a plurality of ball-bearings.

[0012] Naturally, the invention extends to elongate elements other than conduits or strips of precabling conduits, such as copper or optic cables. Finally, another advantage of the reel of the invention is that it enables several cables or conduits to be unreeled simultaneously and independently, without increasing the amount of floor space required. This additional advantage of the reel of the invention is achieved by the fact that it also comprises a circular cover designed to close the end of the container opposite from its bottom. A plurality of reels of the invention can thus be stacked one on top of the other, the bottom of one reel resting on the cover of the reel that is immediately beneath it.

[0013] The following description with reference to the accompanying drawing given by way of non-limiting example will make it possible to understand what the invention consists of and how it can be achieved.

[0014]FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of a reel of the invention.

[0015]FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a stack comprising a plurality of FIG. 1 reels.

[0016]FIG. 1 is an exploded view of a reel 1 designed to receive elongate elements, in order to unreel them, said elongate elements being cables or precabling conduits, for example, for interior cabling of buildings.

[0017] The reel 1 comprises various elements, namely a container 10, a spool 20, and a cover 30 which are described in detail below.

[0018] The container 10 is generally toroidal in shape and is constituted by two cylindrical walls 11, 12 that are coaxial about a common axis A. The wall 11 is an “outer” wall, and the wall 12 in an “inner” wall. The two walls are interconnected via a bottom 13 that is substantially perpendicular to the axis A. The container 10 is thus a receptacle for the elongate elements assembled in coils and capable of being unreeled out of the container by passing through a side opening 14 made in the outer cylindrical wall 11.

[0019] The spool 20 receives coils of elongate elements and, to this end, comprises a cylindrical core 21 bordered at one end by a flange 22. The spool 20 is designed to be inserted in the container 10, the cylindrical core 21 interfitting about the inner wall 12, and the flange 22 bearing against the bottom 13 of said container 10. In this way, when the elongate elements are pulled through the opening 14, the spool 20 turns freely about the inner cylindrical wall 12 which forms a shaft on which it turns.

[0020] In order to make it easier to rotate the spool 20, the bottom 13 of the container 10 is equipped with a plurality of ball-bearings 15.

[0021] The purpose of the cover 30 is to close the end of the container 10 opposite from its bottom 13. This disposition is particularly advantageous since it enables a plurality of reels to be stacked one on another, such as the reels 1, 1′, 1″ in FIG. 2. Several different elongate elements can thus be pulled out independently or collectively without increasing the amount of floor space required.

[0022] The cover 30 optionally has a central opening 31 of diameter substantial equal to the diameter of the inner wall 12.

[0023] By way of example, the diameter of the reel 1 is about 70 centimeters (cm), thereby occupying a floor area of less than 0.4 square meters (m²) for a height of about 20 or so centimeters.

[0024] It should also be noted that the use of plastics materials such as ABS enables reels to be made that are very light. 

1/ A reel for paying out elongate elements for interior cabling of buildings, the reel (1) being characterized in that it comprises: a container (10) of generally toroidal shape, presenting an outer wall (11) that is cylindrical about axis A, an inner wall (12) that is also cylindrical, and coaxial with the outer wall, and a substantially plane bottom (13) interconnecting the outer and inner walls (11, 12) and extending perpendicularly to the axis A, the outer wall (11) being provided with a side opening (14) through which said elongate elements pass; and a spool (20) designed to receive the elongate elements and to be inserted in the container (10), said spool comprising a cylindrical core (21) capable of interfitting about said inner wall (12), and bordered by an annular flange (22) capable of bearing against the bottom (13) of said container. 2/ A reel according to claim 1, characterized in that the bottom (13) of the container (10) includes a plurality of ball-bearings (15). 3/ A reel according to claim 1 or claim 2, characterized in that it also comprises a circular cover (30) designed to close the end of the container (10) opposite from its bottom (13). 4/ A reel according to claim 3, characterized in that the cover (30) has a central opening (31) of diameter substantial equal to the diameter of the inner wall (12). 5/ A stack of reels (1, 1′, 1″) according to claim 3 or claim 4, characterized in that the bottom of one reel rests on the cover of the reel that is immediately beneath it. 